Key tags



July 15, 1958 H. A. STEVENS 2,842,877

' 'KEY TAGS Filed March 19, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 H. A. Sim/ens ATTORNEYS INVENTOR July 15, 1958 H. A. STIEVENS KEY TAGS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 19. 1953 7/ v 7////// ///VvVAQV/////////A ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,842,877 Patented July 15, 1958 KEY TAGS Herbert A. Stevens, Long Beach, Calif.

Application March 19, 1953, Serial No. 343,439 11 Claims. c1. 40..

This invention relates to a novel key tag of the type attached to door keys in order to identify the keys of rooms in a hotel, motor court, bath house or the like wherein occupants of rooms are transient and the rooms frequently used by different persons.

At the present time, it is customary to attach tags to keys, but the tags now in use are not fully satisfactory as room numbers are imprinted upon them or otherwise permanently applied. If a key is lost or a tenant leaves a hotel without turning in his key, another key with a tag attached to it must be given to the next occupant of the room. Some rooms of hotels or the like are more desirable than other rooms and a larger number of tags must be obtained by the hotel management for keys of the more desirable rooms than for other rooms, some of which are seldom used. This is expensive and inconvenient.

It is therefore one object of the invention to provide an improved key tag of such construction that members bearing numerals and other identifying indicia may be moved and a tag thereby caused to display the number of any room desired instead of permanently bearing the number of a certain room, thus making it unnecessary to have on hand a comparatively large number of tags bearing the numbers of popular rooms and also eliminates a surplus of tags bearing the numbers of rooms which are seldom used.

Another object of the invention is to provide a tag including a casing in which are housed indicia bearing members mounted for independent rotation so that by turning the said members individually, selected indicia on the said members may be moved into position to form a predetermined room number which is displayed through a window formed in a wall of the casing, thus allowing the tag to be applied to any key and correctly identify a room having a lock which the key fits.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved key tag wherein indicia bearing members are rotatably mounted in concentric relation to each other so that by individually turning the'members while holding others stationary, numerals or other indicia may be moved into alignment radially of the rotatable. members and thus form room numbers which are displayed through an opening formed in a wall of the casing of the tag.

Another object of the invention is to provide rotatable indicia bearing members having characters upon opposite side faces, the characters upon the side faces of'the said members being so arranged that when the members are turned to form a predetermined room number from the characters which are visible through an indicia-indexing opening in one side wall of the casing, a duplicate number will be formed by the characters on the opposite surfaces of the said members which are visible through a window in the opposite side wall of the casing and disposed out of opposed relation to the indicia-indexing opening. a

I Another object, of the invention is to provide denture for the indicia-indexing opening which is of such formation that when it is in a closed position, numerals forming a room number visible through the said opening will be disposed between ribs on the closure and thus prevent the indicia bearing members from accidentally turning out of a position in which the desired number is displayed through the window.

Another object of the invention is to so form a closure plate for the indicia-indexing opening that it will be held in place after it has been slid longitudinally to a closed position and in addition so form an end of the plate that when the plate is removed from the opening it may be held in a persons hand and used as an implement for engaging outstanding indicia upon the indicia bearing members and the said members readily turned to adjusted positions.

Another object of the invention is to provide a link so formed that it may be easily applied to a key, the link having a portion forming a bill which may be passed through aligned openings formed through the closure plate and a Wall of the casing and thus serve to secure the plate in its closed position as well as serving to detachably connect the link and the key with the tag.

With these and other objects in view, the tag consists of an improved construction, an embodiment of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. l is a perspective view showing a tag of the improved construction applied to a key;

Fig. 2 is a group view of the elements from which the tag is formed;

Fig. 3 is a view loo-king at the opposite side of one of the indicia-bearing members shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a group view looking at the opposite side of v the tag from that shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a view upon an enlarged scale showing the tag with one side wall of its casing removed;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken longitudinally through the tag;

Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line 7--7 of Fig. 6; and

- Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the closure plate looking at the inner surface thereof.

The casing 1 of this tag is substantially diamond shaped and of such dimensions that it may be conveniently held in a persons hand and also placed in a pocket without causing bulging at the pocket. It may be formed of any suitable material which is of light weight and strong and durable but is preferably formed of styrene or a similar plastic which may be molded and thus manufactured at small cost. The casing may also be formed of any color desired and thus produce tags which are attractive in appearance and, in addition, have been found convenient for use by hotel room clerks when distributing keys not in use. 7 I

This container or casing has side walls 2 and 3 and also a marginal wall 4 which extends along edges of the wall 2 and, upon referring to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the wall 3 fits snugly in place and has its edges in close contacting engagement with inner surfaces of the marginal wall. The wall 2 has a portion of reduced thickness in order to provide an internal recess 5 which is substantially circular and also provide ledges 6 against which the inner surface of the wall 3 bears when the wall 3 is pressed into place and firmly secured by heat as shown at 7 or in any other desired manner.

The upper portion of the side wall 2 is of substantially an even thickness but is formed with a very shallow recess 3 which extends from the end of the casing between upper terminals of the marginal walls 4 and is disposed radially of the circular seat 5. In spaced relation to theseat 5, the inner end portion of the recess 8 is reduced in width to form a neck 9 and shoulders 10 3 and through the upper end of the casing is formed an opening 11 disposed midway the width of the recess 8.

The side wall 2 is formed with an opening 12 which extends horizontally in radial relation to the seat 5, when the tag is viewed as shown in Fig. 1. This opening constitutes a window and against the inner surface of the wall 2 is applied a thin sheet of transparent plastic or other suitable material 13 which constitutes a shield for the opening or window 12.

The wall 3 is also formed with an opening 14 which serves as an indicia-inclexing opening. This opening 14 leads from the upper end of the wall 3 and extends radially of the recess or seat 5. It should be noted, however, that this opening 14 is longer and wider than the window 12 and is disposed at substantially an angle of 90 to the window. Therefore, when the tag is in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 4, the opening 14 extends vertically of the casing and the opening or window 12 extends horizontally.

Before the wall 3 is applied and secured, indicia-bearing members 15, 16, 17 and 18 are fitted into the seat 5. These indicia-bearing members are circular, the member 15 being a solid disc and the members 16, 17 and 18 being rings. Upon referring to Figs. 2 and 5, it will be seen that the disc and rings are of such diameters that when they are fitted into the seat 5, they will have close fitting concentric relation to each other. As they are circular, these indicia-bearing members may be independently turned relative to each other and thus selected indicia, such as numerals or the like, on outer surfaces of the said members moved into alignment radially of the seat and located midway the width of the opening 14, thus forming a predetermined room number.

The opposite side face of each of the indicia-bearing members is also provided with numbers which are arranged in consecutive order but these numbers are so arranged upon the indicia-bearing members that a number upon the inner surface of any one of the indiciabearing members is spaced 90 from the corresponding number upon the other side face thereof. By so arranging the numbers upon the opposite side faces of the in dici'a-bearing members, a hotel clerk may turn the indicia-bearing members until a desired room number appears through the opening 14 and, when the tag is turned, the identical room number will be displayed through the window 12 as shown in Fig. 1. The large ring 18 not only bears numerals for forming a room number but also bears letters of the alphabet so that by turning this large ring to a position in which a letter A, or other suitable letter, will be aligned with a number shown by the numerals upon the disc 15 and rings 16 and 17, instead of forming a room number 1246 as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, there will be formed a room number 124A. By turning ,the disc and the rings to a position in which a blank portion 16a, 17a or 1811 of one or more of the indicia-bearing rings is moved into position to be seen through the opening 14, a smaller room number will be provided such as 12 or 124.

In order to close the indicia-indexing opening 14 after the disc and rings have been moved to a position forming a predetermined room number, there has been provided a closure plate 19. This closure plate is formed of the same type of material from which the casing is formed and is of such length and width that it will completely close the opening when thrust into the opening for its full length through the upper or outer end of the opening. Side edges of the closure plate and the inner end portion thereof are reduced in thickness to form side lips or flanges 20 which are overlapped by portions 14a of the wall 3 along opposite sides of the opening 14 and also form a tongue 21 at the inner end of the plate which fits under the wall 3 at the lower or inner end of the opening. 'This tongue is tapered from'opposite side edges of the closure plate to form a pointed end 22 for the plate. Therefore, the plate may be entirely removed from the slot or opening 14 and held in a persons hand and its pointed end 22 then engaged with the numerals or letters which appear through this opening and the plate used to turn the indicia-bearing members to set positions in which they form a predetermined room number which is on view through the opening 14. It should be noted that since the numerals or letters which appear through the opening 14 are outstanding letters or numerals they project somewhat from the indicia-bearing members and thus may be readily engaged by the pointed end of the closure plate and the indicia-bearing members readily turned to adjusted positions.

Referring to Fig. 8, it will be seen that the inner surface of the closure plate is formed with ribs 23 which extend longitudinally of the plate. These ribs are in such transversely spaced relation to each other that when the plate is thrust into the opening to its closed position, the exposed numerals forming a room number will be located between the ribs. Therefore, the ribs will serve as barriers which will be engaged by the numerals forming the room number extending radially of the recess 5 and located midway the width of the opening 14 and the ribs will serve very effectively to prevent turning of the indicia-bearing members in either direction while the plate is in its closed position. This will very effectively prevent accidental turning of the indicia-bearing members out of a set position and the duplicate room number formed on the inner surfaces of the indiciabearing members will be displayed through the window l2 until the plate is removed and the indicia-bearing members again intentionally moved to adjusted positions.

The outer end portion of the plate is of such thickness that its inner surface is flush with the surfaces of the ribs 23 as shown in Fig. 8, and when the plate is thrust into the slot to its closed position, this thickened outer end portion 24 of the plate fits into the recess 8. The inner edge 25 of the thickened outer end portion will then have abutting engagement with the shoulders 10 and the outer side edges of the ribs will have contacting engagement with side edges of the neck 9. When the closure plate is thrust inwardly to its closed position and the tongue 21 at its inner end engages under the portion of the wall 3 at the inner end of the slot or opening 14, a pip 26 formed upon the inner surface of the wall 3 snaps into a dent or recess 27 formed in the tongue and serves toresist outward movement of the closure.

An opening 28 formed near the outer end of the closure plate 19 is aligned with the opening 11 and a link 29 may then have a portion passed through the aligned openings and positively prevent movement of the closure plate out of the slot or opening 14. The link 27 is formed of resilient wire and this wire is bent to form an eye 30intermediate its length and bills 31 and 32. The bill 31 is passed through the opening 33'formed in the key 34 and thenhas its free end disposed through the eye 30 so that the link cannot be accidentally disengaged from the key. The bill 32 is passed through the aligned openings 11 and 28 and its free end is also passed through the eye 30and firmly holds the bill against unintentional movement to a freed position in which it may be passed through the aligned openings and release the link from the tag. When, however, the closure plate is to be removed and the indicia-bearing members turned to adjusted position, pressure may be applied to the bill 32 to move it out of the eye 30 and the bill then withdrawn from the aligned openings to release the plate and allow the plate to be slid longitudinally out of the slot or opening 14.

When this improved key tag is in use, the bill 32 of the link 29 is released from the eye 30 and withdrawn from the aligned openings formed through the wall 2 and the outer end of the closure plate. The closure plate is then slid longitudinally out of the opening 14 in the wall 3 and portions of the indicia-bearing members will be exposed throgghthis opening which constitutes an indiciaindexing opening, The casing is then held in the left hand with its wall 3 disposed uppermost so that indicia upon outer surfaces of the indicia-bearing members may be seen through the opening 14. Since the casing is diamond shaped and has rounded corners it may be conveniently grasped in a persons hand and firmly held without corners of the casing digging into the palm and fingers of the hand and the casing will not be liable to slip from the hand. The closure plate 19 is then grasped by its outer end portion with fingers of the other-hand and the point 22 at its inner end successively moved into engagement with the outstanding indicia projecting from outer surfaces of the disc 15 and the rings 16, 17 and 18 and pressure applied to turn the indicia-bearing members. If the room number desired is 1246, the disc is first turned until the numeral 1 appears and the rings are then individually turned until the numerals 2, 4 and 6 are aligned with the numeral 1. The room number 1246 will thus be formed radially of the recess and be displayed longitudinally of the opening 14 as shown in Fig. 4. It will be understood that after the disc 15 has been turned to a position in which the numeral 1 appears through the opening 14, the thumb of the left hand will be moved into position to apply pressure against the exposed portion of the disc and the ring 16 then turned until its numeral 2 is next to the numeral 1 of the disc. Movement of the thumb is continued so that each indicia bearing member is held stationary while the next is being moved to an adjusted position and thus prevents previously set indicia-bearing members from being turned out of a set position by frictional contact with an indicia-bearing member being turned to an adjusted position. If room number 124 is to be formed, the ring 18 is turned to a position in which the blank space 18a appears next to the numeral 4 on ring 17. If the room number is to be 124A, the ring 18 is turned to a position in which the letter A is moved into position next to the numeral 4 of ring 17.

After the predetermined room number has been formed the closure plate 19 is thrust into opening 14 through the open outer end thereof and as the lip or tongue 21 at its inner end moves under the portion of wall 3 at the inner end of the opening pip 26 snaps into the indent 27 and the plate will be held against outward movement. The ribs 19 by contact with the outstanding indicia upon the outer surfaces of the disc 15 and the rings 16, 17 and 18 prevent them from accidentally turning out of their set positions and when the casing is turned to a position presenting its wall 2 upwardly, it will be found that the identical room number 1246 appears through the window 12, as shown in Fig. 1. Since the window extends horizontally midway the length of the casing and to one side of the longitudinal center thereof, the room number 1246 appearing through the window may be conveniently seen and read when the tag is held in the position shown in Fig. 1. After the closure plate has been thrust through the opening 14 to its closed position, the bill 32 of the link 29 is passed through the aligned openings 11 and 28 and the end d the bill engaged through the eye 30 so that. the bill will be secured and prevented from accidentally sliding out of the openings and becoming detached from the tag. The bill 31 may be passed through the opening 33 in the key 34 and secured either before or after the bill 32 is passed through the aligned openings 11 and 28. If the key and its tag should be lost or inadvertently taken away from a hotel by a person and not returned, another tag may be easily and quickly adjusted to display the proper room number and connected with another key for the room. This makes it unnecessary for the hotel management to have a large number of marked tags for the keys of rooms which are in popular demand and eliminates surplus keys for rooms which are seldom used.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the key tag embodying the selectable and movable numeral and/or letter bearing members, and which numerals and/or letters are indexable to select a predetermined numeral or combination of numerals and a letter, and for displaying such selected numerals and/or letter combined therewith separately and remotely from the indexing position, is an entirely self-contained unitary article of manufacture. The numeral and/ or letter bearing members embodied in the tag are permanently associated therewith and thus eliminating the insertion of or removal from the key tag of any of the numerals or letters as the case may be.

What is claimed is;

1. A key tag comprising a casing having side walls, one side wall being formed with a window and the other with an indicia-indexing opening having an open outer end, the inner surface of the Wall having the window therein being formed with a substantially circular seat radially of which the window extends and with a recess extending from an edge portion of the casing radially of the seat and exposed through the said opening and at its inner end communicating with the seat, circular members carrying raised indicia means and rotatably mounted in said seat in concentric relation to each other and independently rotatable to dispose selected indicia in position to be seen through the opening and the window, a closure plate for said opening slidable longitudinally of the opening through the outer end thereof to opened and closed positions, said plate having upon its inner surface a thickened portion fitting into the opening and also having abutments projecting from the said thickened portion of the plate in transverse spaced relation to each other and between which certain of the raised indicia means fit to prevent accidental rotation of the said members when the closure plate is closed, and a link engageable with a key and having a portion removably passing through aligned openings formed respectively through the outer end portion of the closure plate and a portion of the casing and securing the closure plate in its closed position.

2. A key tag comprising a casing having opposed side walls, one wall being formed with a window and the other with an indicia-indexing opening leading from an edge portion of the said wall and having an open outer end, indicia-bearing members in said casing provided upon opposite side faces with raised indicia means exposed through the window and the said openings respectively, said members being independently movable transversely across the opening to adjusted positions in which predetermined indicia means are exposed through said opening and identical indicia means are displayed through said window, a removable closure for said opening slidable longitudinally through the open outer end of the opening into and out of a closed position and having edge portions interfitting with portions of the wall along margins of the opening, and ribs extending along the inner surface of said closure longitudinally thereof and spaced transversely from each other a distance adapting them to receive between them the raised indicia means exposed through the opening and thereby prevent accidental movement. of .the said members out of a set position.

3.. A key tag comprising a casing having opposed side walls, one wall being formed with a window and the other with an indicia-indexing opening, indicia-bearing members in said casing provided upon opposite side faces with raised indicia means exposed through the window and the said opening respectively, said members being independently movable to adjusted positions in which predetermined indicia means are exposed through said openirig and identical indicia means displayed through said window, and aremovable closure for said opening carrying abutment means engageable with portions of said indicia means exposed through the opening when in a closed position and thereby serving as a means for preventing accidental movement of the said members out of a set position.

4. A key tag comprising a casing having opposed side walls, one wall being formed with a window and the other with an indicia-indexing opening, indicia-bearing members in said casing provided upon opposite side faces with raised indicia means exposed through the window and the opening respectively, said members being independently movable to adjusted positions in which predetermined indicia means are exposed through said opening and identical indicia means are displayed through said window, and a closure for said opening movable to opened and closed positions and provided with means engageable with the indicia-bearing members when the closure is closed and thereby preventing accidental movement of the said members out of a set position.

5. A key tag comprising a casing having opposing side walls, a plurality of circular members rotatably supported in concentric nested relation between said walls for relative rotation, said members each bearing on one side face a circular arrangement of raised indicia means, that side wall nearest to the indicia means bearing faces of the circular members having an opening giving access to all of the members whereby each member may be engaged and rotated to move selected indicia means into a desired linear association, a removable closure member fitting in said opening, means for coupling the closure with certain of the indicia means after the members have been rotated to obtain said linear association of indicia means and when the closure has been placed in said opening, and means forming a viewing window through which the associated indicia means may be seen after the closure has been placed in said opening.

6. A key tag comprising a casing having opposing side walls, a plurality of members rotatably supported in concentric nested relation between said walls for relative rotation, said members each bearing on one side face a circular arrangement of raised indicia means, that side wall nearest to the indicia means bearing faces of the circular members having an opening giving access to all of the members whereby each member may be engaged and rotated to move selected indicia means into a desired linear association, means carried by said closure for interengagement with the raised indicia means on the circular members for securing the latter against movement after the members have been relatively rotated to obtain said linear association of indicia means, and means forming a viewing window through which the associated indicia means may be seen after the closure has been placed in said opening.

7. The invention according to claim 6, wherein the said means carried by the closure comprises spaced elements between which the said associated line of raised indicia means are engaged.

8. A key tag comprising a casing having side walls, one side being formed with a sight window and the other with an indicia-indexing opening removed from said window along a path extending arcuately between the window and the indicia-indexing opening, circular members rotatably mounted in said opening in nested concentric relation with each other and independently rotatable relative to each other, said members each bearing upon opposite side faces raised indicia means spaced apart circumferentia'lly thereof, the indicia means upon one side face of each member corresponding to indicia means upon its other side face and removed from the indicia means on said other side face along a circular path a distance equal to the distance separating said opening from said window whereby turning of the said members into position to display selected indicia means through the indicia-indexing opening causes identical indicia means to be displayed through the sight window, a removable closure movable into and out of closing relation to said indicia-indexing opening, means carried by the closure for effecting the games? 9. The structure of claim 8, wherein the closure for the indicia-indexing opening is slidable longitudinally into and out of closing relation to the indexing opening, and

said coupling means comprises holding elements upon the inner surface of said closure which extend longitudinally of the closure in transversely spaced relation to each other and between which fit the indicia means exposed through the said indexing opening when the closure is in place whereby said holding elements engage opposite side edge portions of the said indicia means and thereby prevent accidental turning of the said members out of a set position.

10. The structure of claim 8, wherein the closure for the indicia-indexing opening is slidable longitudinally into and out of closing relation to the indexing opening, and said coupling means comprises ribs upon the inner surface of said closure which extend longitudinally of the closure in transversely spaced relation to each other and between which fit the indicia means exposed through the said indexing opening when the closure is in place whereby side edges of the ribs engage opposite side edge portions of the said indicia means and thereby prevent accidental turning of the said members out of a set position.

11. The structure of claim 8, wherein the indiciaindexing opening leads from an edge portion of the casing and is open at its outer end, the closure for said indexing opening consisting of a plate slidable longitudinally into and out of closing relation to the indexing opening through the open outer end thereof, lips along opposite side edges of said plate engaging under the wall in which the indexing opening is formed along side edges of the indexing opening, the inner end of said plate being of reduced thickness and forming a tongue engaging under a portion of the said wall at the inner end of the indexing opening, said tongue being tapered to a point and constituting a bill adapting the plate for engagement with indicia when entirely removed from the indexing opening, whereby-the plate may have its bill engaged with side portions of the raised indicia means and serve as a setting member for turning the indicia means bearing members to adjusted positions, and said means for effecting coupling of the indicia-bearing members with the closure comprising holding elements upon the. inner surface of said closure which are arranged to extend longitudinally of the clo'sure and transversely spaced to receive there- 'between and engaged the raised indicia means exposed through said indexing opening when the closure is in place therein and thereby prevent accidental turning of said members out of a set position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

